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Spikes

Old 09-20-2010, 10:57 PM
  #1  
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Ok here's my question should we lull out spikes on our farm or not? I've herd it both ways some say kill em they'll always be a spike and ruin the gene pool and others say let em walk whoes right? I'm not against killing a management deer I just don't wanna shoot a spike when it could become a B&C monster. Last year I took a messed up spike one horn went up like it should and the other started up curved and came down towards it's eye. I don't think it'd ever became a big deer but what about normal spikes???
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Old 09-21-2010, 03:23 AM
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Wait until they are 2 years old. Then you'll have a fair idea of the buck's potential assuming conditions are normal.

If you have had a droughty year or two and food sources are down, many young deer will be spikes. If conditions are great and there's no reason for deer not to grow antlers, there's probably no harm in taking some spikes.
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Old 09-21-2010, 04:24 AM
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I am not an expert but I can tell you my son nicked a small apike with a bow several years ago. The deer ducked and turned and he just grased the fromt sholder due to a slow jr. bow shooting about 35 pound draw.....and some buck fever too I supose. he had blood and hair on only one fletch and I have tons of old film pics from the cam the next two seasons of that deer after the shot. His wound healed up in about two weeks but we only had night pics after the encounter.
I have no way of telling for sure but he killed an 8 point from the same stand comming from the same direction 2 years after that and that deer had the same exact scar. Again, I'm no expert but it's plain to me that it's the same deer. I could be wrong but this deer used a small tract of land (about 30 acres) and we watched him year after year. Hope this helps.
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Old 09-21-2010, 04:35 AM
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Spikes are usually just young bucks that are born later in the birthing season. Given a year or two they will catch up with the other bucks in antler size born that same year.
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Old 09-21-2010, 04:59 AM
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Originally Posted by timbercruiser
Spikes are usually just young bucks that are born later in the birthing season. Given a year or two they will catch up with the other bucks in antler size born that same year.
x2 Wait until 2.5 years then decide
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Old 09-21-2010, 05:10 AM
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You know, I boiled em, baked them, fried them and I still have not found a good recipe for antlers.

Antlers has nothing to do with the quality of deer.
In this world - we no longer euthanize babies because they were born with defects. As a matter of fact, our insurance companies are bleeding money with all the people who wishes to adopt those children and provide for them, even though it costs our health system billions of dollars a year in added expense - while their quality of life is never improved.

So why shoot a deer just because it has big antlers? It's all about bragging rights, where everyone measures their level of success by how many points it had or how big the spread was or how many Boone and Crockett points it scored.

My opinion is - let the big bucks walk - so they can breed again next year and shoot the little bucks with the spike horns and eat them. The most offensive thing to me that I see, even on the television is people who shoots deer just for the bragging rights and then they give away the meat. I went to one of those so called donation butchers and found that not only do you have to donate the deer, you have to pay to cut it up - just so you can give the meat away to some lazy bums that are not willing to work and are not willing to go in the woods and hunt and try to provide for themselves.

I notice one reliefer family - who uses two names, the husband uses his name and the wife uses her maiden name so they can get twice as much food at the food pantry's as everyone else. They about wear out vehicles going from place to place to get as much free food as they can. Then you see them sitting in the Bingo parlor - gambling, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer with the money that they saved by not buying groceries.
They probably have that house stuffed so full of food that you can't even open the doors.

So my opinion is - if you aren't going to eat it, then why shoot it.

That all boils down once again to those antlers on the head and bragging rights. My favorite programs is in the states that do not have enough hunters, that has a take a doe program, where you have to shoot and tag a doe before you get a license to shoot bucks.

If they did that in Pennsylvania, we would run out of deer in about 3 years.
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Old 09-21-2010, 05:20 AM
  #7  
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There is research that shows over 70 percent of young bucks travel over a mile within their first year of life. It is believed that is natures way of preventing incest. I would shoot the spikes because they probably wont be there. And if you're hunting public land, I would not care because everyone that talks about letting the little ones go is full of bs. As soon as a spike walks in front of them they will down him. People will argue that but its the truth time and time again.
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Old 09-21-2010, 05:56 AM
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It depends which side of the fence your on. Some who trophy hunt would say,take him out. Others who want venison would take him out. You can't predict a spike at the 1 1/2 year. I do know this, If you want big bucks, you must let little bucks grow up.
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Old 09-21-2010, 06:32 AM
  #9  
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Originally Posted by Mr. Deer Hunter
You know, I boiled em, baked them, fried them and I still have not found a good recipe for antlers.

Antlers has nothing to do with the quality of deer.
In this world - we no longer euthanize babies because they were born with defects. As a matter of fact, our insurance companies are bleeding money with all the people who wishes to adopt those children and provide for them, even though it costs our health system billions of dollars a year in added expense - while their quality of life is never improved.

So why shoot a deer just because it has big antlers? It's all about bragging rights, where everyone measures their level of success by how many points it had or how big the spread was or how many Boone and Crockett points it scored.

My opinion is - let the big bucks walk - so they can breed again next year and shoot the little bucks with the spike horns and eat them. The most offensive thing to me that I see, even on the television is people who shoots deer just for the bragging rights and then they give away the meat. I went to one of those so called donation butchers and found that not only do you have to donate the deer, you have to pay to cut it up - just so you can give the meat away to some lazy bums that are not willing to work and are not willing to go in the woods and hunt and try to provide for themselves.

I notice one reliefer family - who uses two names, the husband uses his name and the wife uses her maiden name so they can get twice as much food at the food pantry's as everyone else. They about wear out vehicles going from place to place to get as much free food as they can. Then you see them sitting in the Bingo parlor - gambling, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer with the money that they saved by not buying groceries.
They probably have that house stuffed so full of food that you can't even open the doors.

So my opinion is - if you aren't going to eat it, then why shoot it.

That all boils down once again to those antlers on the head and bragging rights. My favorite programs is in the states that do not have enough hunters, that has a take a doe program, where you have to shoot and tag a doe before you get a license to shoot bucks.

If they did that in Pennsylvania, we would run out of deer in about 3 years.

Your right this is the great ol U S of A!! Thank you government system for this!! Since they think they would rather worry about bank incentives and crap that the public likes to read and hear about than the more important things. Gotta love it!
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Old 09-21-2010, 08:48 AM
  #10  
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I just read an article where they tested this over many years. They tagged a bunch of yearlings and found that spikes and branched antler bucks grew the same size antlers at maturity.

One of the spikes was a wide 10 pointer at 4.5 years old.
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